Wallpaper and modernism do mix! Here, designers offer tips on creating rooms with hot new papers.

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Karen Combswallpaper designer, Nama Rococo
"In a minimal modern interior, all you need is one sofa, one table and a wall of wallpaper and you look decorated. Wallpaper brings out the soul and life of a room. You don't need all of the details, because the details are in the wallpaper. I've also seen it used as a headboard for a bed, and I have a friend who framed an entrance door with it. For the Little Butterfly Loop pattern [left], I took a Jasper Johns–like target and then mashed it together with 18th-century French flowers. I like to take things that are seemingly different and marry them together. It's bold and intense and certainly not for the faint of heart."

Given Campbellwallpaper designer
"I feel that wallpaper is about drama, so I tend to design oversize patterns. A lot of people use these patterns in powder rooms, which are often independent from the rest of the house. There, you can really go out of your comfort zone design-wise. You can go with big, oversize and dramatic patterns in colors like pink and orange, things you wouldn't normally do.

Barry Dixoninterior designer
"Wallpapering horizontal stripes on the ceiling of a long, narrow room can make it look dramatically wider. A striped rug or carpet would do the same thing, but the effect of the stripe will be hidden by the furniture on top of it. Only on the ceiling do you get the full effect of that geometry play. Also, for a garden room, I papered the ceiling with a very organic, leafy pattern. The paper was more about shadow play than pattern so it felt like you were sitting under the canopy of a big tree."

Tracy Kendallwallpaper designer
"I look for ways of making wallpaper come off the wall. I've been using a laser cutter to allow some of it to hang free and reveal what's underneath. I've also been adding things, like jigsaw pieces, buttons, Swarovski crystals and sequins. I'm getting more and more extreme—I'm now using two-inch sequins. Some clients put my paper on a wooden board and pin that up on their apartment walls. When they move, they can take it with them."

Neisha Croslandwallpaper designer
"A very small pattern in a large space can become more of a texture than a pattern. It becomes kind of a mist, which is nice. On the other hand, a medium-size floral can look humdrum in a large space. A wide pattern brings a ceiling down and makes a room look cozier. It gives a nice horizontal feeling."

Lulu de Kwiatkowskiwallpaper designer, Lulu DK
"People have laminated or lacquered my wallpaper so that it can hang in a bathroom. Normally wallpaper is not recommended there with the humidity, but laminating allows you to do that. I've seen people even put it on furniture, where it's been shellacked."

Amy Lauinterior designer
"I recently completed a seven-bedroom house in the Hamptons. I wanted each room to be different so I used wallpaper on the wall behind the bed in some rooms, and in others, depending on the pattern, I papered two, three or all the walls. The ones that were more powerful and vivid could handle only one all."

Raji Radhakrishnaninterior designer
"You can have any image made into wallpaper. Last year, at the British Museum in London, I saw a pediment with six life-size classic figures. I took a photo of it. My husband said that photo would make great wallpaper. So I took it to a photo lab and had them blow up the image and then plastered it in the bedroom of a showhouse."

Jon Shermanwallpaper designer, Flavor Paper
"Transitioning wallpaper into the modern home doesn't require a change in pattern. We take traditional patterns and use them in foils and Mylars and vibrant water-based inks. It's like when Plastic Fantastic dipped the Louis-style chair in rubber and suddenly it became modern. City Park, a pattern by Dan Funderburgh [FlavorLeague.com], seems traditional because it's a floral, but it's been updated with parking meters and fire hydrants."

Casey Gunschelwallpaper designer, Palace Papers
"I always tell people to do a screen with wallpaper. This is a good idea for someone renting an apartment who can't paper the walls."